Loose Shrouds

I have finally gotten my boat onto the mooring and am hopeful to go out this afternoon. Question: My shrouds seem really loose and they are pinned at the last opening available nearest the coaming. Is this too loose? I can't tighten the jib forestay up, it is a self furling jib. Any suggestions?

Thanks-

Char

Sounds to loose to me. Mine are set in the middle hole, and are a tight fit to get in. My guess is that when they put the furling in they made it too long. Does your mast lean back a bit? If so, maybe you can shorten the furling and solve the problem. Otherwise, you may have to shorten all of them?!

Just my two cents.
Daniel

I am no expert, at all... Mine is just trial and error, but JD sounds right on. Your mast should be neutral, forward/aft and port/starbord, with just slight tension on the shrouds (super low frequency).

Been messing with my rigging to try to get some of the weather out of the helm (previous owner had the rigging all messed up)... Anyway, I've got mine set almost in the middle for the forestay (6 holes up), and the shrouds are 5 holes up on each side.

With my rigging at these tensions, I have to pull on the forestay a little using the jib halyard so I can (single handedly anyway), get my forestay pin in. With 2 people I'd likely do it without the halyard.

I resorted to this, after suffering from, what I would call, extreme weather helm. Someone please correct me if my solution is the wrong way to fix this, but so far it seems to have all but eliminated the problem (mast does not seem to be raked forward as I might have described, but rather seems almost neutral in place). None of the tensions are such to make a "musical note" (not quite enough tension), however, the high side will "sing" some while beating up wind, and standing her on her side.

Again, someone correct me if I am wrong on any of this.

Try adjusting your rig tight to loose to see what the effects on sail vs helm are. You can steer your boat without helm based on rig trim. Always adjust stbd & port equal mid ship then tune forestay and jib halyard to balance for helm and wind conditions. Rule of thumb is loose for light winds and stiff rig for stiff wind. A good lesson is to try sailing your boat with the rudder raised. Practice steering with your sails. Once you get the feel of boat handling from the sails, incremental adjustments in your rig (forestay/halyard) will make perfect sense. Get the port and stbd shrouds equal and midship with more play for light air and less for heavy air then tune with your forestay and jib halyard tension. Let the boat drive where it goes fast by balancing fore sail and main not how you like to steer unless you are beer cruising. Fast boats want to round up and you have to pay attention. A neutral slower boat will not point as high but will be a cruiser and take fewer tiller corrections. You have to correct tiller angle before weather helm is felt or it will slow you down.

Ever fill the bottom of a self bailer with ice? It makes a great cooler. Just stay on the rail with feet hooked in the straps.

Maybe everyone here knows what a "Weather Helm" is but I had to look it up. I was kinda in the ball park but this defines it very well.

Weather helm is the tendency of boating vessels to move towards the source of wind, creating an unbalanced helm that requires pulling the tiller windward to counteract the effect. Weather helm is the opposite of lee helm.

When a vessel is close hauled and sailing, the lee side of the hull is more under water than the weather side. Passing water pressing on the lee side of the hull creates a force (a turning moment) that pushes the bow to weather and it is necessary to pull the tiller to weather to equilibrate this force. Since a weather helm requires pulling the rudder through the water at an angle to the intended course, it produces drag and retards the boat's progress through the water. One of several ways racing sailboaters neutralize weather helm is to use bodyweight as ballast to bring the boat to a more upright position. In his book "Sailing Illustrated" Patrick M. Royce defines weather helm as simply a "heeling sailboat wanting to come head to wind." The principle is the same whether the vessel is steered by tiller or wheel; one would turn the wheel leeward to get the same rudder effect as pulling a tiller windward.

This is another good explanation;
http://www.sailingusa.info/sailboat_balance.htm
There is an explanation on how to sail without the rudder, just the sails. I want to try this next time out.